Wto To Ax Rich-nation Agriculture Subsidies

August 1, 2004|By Elizabeth Becker, the New York Times

GENEVA -- The World Trade Organization agreed Saturday that it would eventually eliminate billions of dollars in farm subsidies for rich nations in a new framework for revising global trade rules aimed at helping the world's poorest people.

The agreement approved Saturday night amounts to the halfway point in this round of talks. Officials hope for a successful conclusion in 2006, about the time Congress will be renewing the farm program, which will have to include the changes finally agreed to by the global trade body.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who has become a spokesman for the developing world on those issues, said the accord reached here was a milestone for farmers who could never compete against the richer world's subsidized crops and who were going out of business by the millions.

"This is the beginning of the end of subsidies," Amorim said. "It is a rare combination of social justice and trade coming together."

After its very public failure to reach an accord last year in Cancun, Mexico, the trade body and its members said they were determined to revive this round of talks despite skeptics who questioned the rich nations' sincerity.

But rich and poor countries alike have been questioning the world's trading system and blaming globalization for many ills, from outsourcing jobs to lowering standards of living. So the talks here have been seen as essential to proving that trade can be fair.